Union Minister and Congress candidate for the Puducherry Lok Sabha constituency V. Narayanasamy on Thursday criticised Chief Minister N. Rangasamy for having described the Congress as a corrupt party.

Mr. Narayanasamy told reporters here that it was unfortunate to hear the comment from a person who was elected twice as Chief Minister on the Congress support. Mr. Rangasamy had stayed in the Chief Minister’s post for seven years as a Congress nominee. He shouldn’t have made such a bad comment about the party that had given him everything.

On the allegation made by Mr. Rangasamy that Mr. Narayanasamy had prevented Central grant to Puducherry, the Union Minister said the Chief Minister was trying to divert the attention of voters. Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said that the Union Territory of Puducherry had received the highest grant compared to other States and Union Territories. Mr. Rangasamy, who avoided the National Development Council meeting for three years, had no right to say that the Centre had reduced the grant to Puducherry.

Mr. Narayanasamy said he had received information that election officials had raided a few houses of Congressmen without valid reasons.

He suspected Mr. Rangasamy’s hand behind it. This was intended to threaten those who worked for the Congress candidate.

When a team of union leaders of the Anglo French Textiles (AFT) went to Delhi, Mr. Narayanasamy had helped them to meet various Ministers to revive the mill. However, the Puducherry government did nothing to pursue the files, which were at present with the Finance Ministry, Mr. Narayanasamy said. No one from the Puducherry government, including the Chief Minister or Ministers, had visited New Delhi to secure funds for the mill’s revival, the Minister added.